Monaco, a small principality on the Mediterranean, 149 miles ENE. of Marseilles, and 9 from Nice. Area, 8 sq. m.; pop. (1873) 5741; (1890) 13,304, of whom 3292 were in the town of Monaco, to the family of Grimaldi. Originally of Genoese extraction, they first held lands in France, between Fréjus and Toulon, where the name of the bay of Grimaud still commemorates their sway. They acquired Monaco in 968, Mentone and Roquebrune and Castillon about 1230, and Antibes in 1237. In European politics they sided with the Guelph party. Honoré II. put his country under a French protectorate in 1644. In 1715 the heiress of the Grimaldi of Monaco married Matignon, Comte de Thorigny, and her descendants continued to reign over their small kingdom. It has, however, suffered at the hands of its great neighbours. In 1846 Mentone and Roquebrune were annexed by Sardinia, and after the war of 1859 the whole territory belonged for a short time to King Victor Emmanuel. The protests of its lawful owner were loud, but he was none the less ready for another arrangement, since in 1861 he sold Mentone and Roquebrune to Napoleon III. for 4,000,000 francs. His capital Monaco is now under French protection. Prince Albert (born in 1848, succeeded 1889), the present sovereign, has one son, Louis, by a marriage, dissolved in 1880, with Lady Mary Hamilton. About 1000 of the inhabitants are employed in the rooms and gardens of the celebrated Casino. These gambling-rooms, built at Monte Carlo on ground leased (to 1913) from the Prince of Monaco, belong to a joint-stock company or Société Anonyme, which pays £50,000 a year for the concession, and sets aside about £360,000 a year for working expenses. Some £200,000 is paid to the army of croupiers, police, detectives, theatrical and operatic companies. Large sums go for the upkeep of the gardens and houses and management generally; and the company is held bound to defray the municipal expenditure as well. In 1895 the clear profit was said to be 13,000,000 francs: it is quite usual to pay 9 or 10 per cent. on the present value of the shares, and 30 or 40 per cent. on their original value. In 1895 1,160,000 francs were paid for 'publicity'—i.e. as hush-money, to many newspapers (chiefly Parisian) to suppress hostile criticisms, unpleasant facts, suicides, &c. The climate of Monaco is milder than that of any other place in the Riviera; palms and aloes grow most luxuriantly, and rare wild-flowers are found on its rocky promontory.
See Métivier, Monaco et ses Princes (2d ed. 1865); Pemberton, Monaco Past and Present (1867); and Boyer de Sainte-Suzanne, La Principauté de Monaco (1884).